As the son of Lloyd Bridges and younger brother of Beau, Jeff has been a camera hound since he was an infant, appearing in The Company She Keeps (1950) and in his father's series, Sea Hunt (1958–61). After high school, he began working in films, turning in critically acclaimed performances opposite Cybill Shepherd in The Last Picture Show (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), and Starman (1984), as well as bombs King Kong (1976) and Heaven's Gate (1980). He returned to form in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), co-starring brother Beau, and played a burned-out hippie who could bowl a mean strike in The Big Lebowski (1998). Other credits include Arlington Road (1999) and The Contender (2000), for which he earned an Oscar nomination.